Impressive youngster Liam Davies has knocked off another top player at the British Open and has credited the impact of a psychologist for his excellent run of form.
The 20-year-old dropped off the professional tour at the end of last season but immediately bounced straight back through the notoriously tricky Q School over the summer.
Since then he has been remarkably consistent, winning 11 matches before the end of August, including two of the best victories of his career at the Wuhan Open.
The Welshman downed Ding Junhui and Gary Wilson in the Chinese event, before falling to Neil Robertson.
Davies has kept up the run of giant-killing at the British Open in Cheltenham as he knocked out Barry Hawkins 4-2 on Tuesday evening.
He continues his rapid rise up the rankings and feels it is all down to an improved attitude thanks to work with a psychologist.
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‘There’s a lot of positives going on at the minute, so hopefully I can keep it up throughout the week,’ Davies told Metro.
‘I started working with a psychologist before Q School, Dr Tom Bates, and he’s helped me no end with my attitude.
‘I think, when you’re losing, that can become a habit as well as winning. It’s given me something new, something fresh to focus on.
‘I’m just looking at things more positively. At the end of the day I’m 20 years old playing in ranking events like this, it’s pointless getting down on yourself, you’ve just got to go out there and enjoy it.
‘Playing Ding last week was like an out-of-body experience really. Going from playing in front of no one in Leicester to playing in front of 2,500 people in China. It’s all great.’
Beating established ranking event winners has become the norm in recent weeks, but Davies is not getting carried away with who he has been beating.
Part of the new attitude is just t concentrate on what he is doing at the table, trying to make his opponent irrelevant.
‘To be honest I’m just focusing on myself, I’m not really looking at who I’m playing, I’m just focusing on what I’m doing and doing it to the best of my ability,’ he said.
‘It’s definitely part of what I’ve been working on. I did treat people with too much respect on the table, obviously I have respect for them off the table, but when you get on the table it’s just you and the table so it doesn’t matter who’s sat in the chair.’
Things don’t get any easier for the youngster as it is the winner of Shaun Murphy vs Dave Gilbert next for him on Thursday.
Unsurprisingly he is unfazed by the level of competition.
‘I’m just focusing on what I do best,’ he said. ‘If I can do everything I can do, I can control, to the best of my abilities, hopefully I can play good.’